Warner: Tokyo 1940 and other 'lost Olympics'

Aug. 16, 2013

Updated Aug. 29, 2014 4:21 a.m.

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Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian Olympic swimmer, poses in a swimming pool in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 1933. "Duke" later helped assemble the U.S. swim team for the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo - games that never occured because of international pressure and then the outbreak of World War II. AP

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Tokyo is the leading candidate for the 2020 Summer Olympics. It was originally slated to host the 1940 games, the first after the 1936 games held in Berlin under Nazi rule. Threats of boycotts forced Japan to resign as host and the games themselves never occured because of World War II. AP

Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian Olympic swimmer, poses in a swimming pool in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 1933. "Duke" later helped assemble the U.S. swim team for the 1940 Olympics in Tokyo - games that never occured because of international pressure and then the outbreak of World War II. AP

Next month, the International Olympic Committee will award the 2020 Summer Games to one of three cities. Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid are the finalists, and the Japanese capital seems to be the prohibitive favorite to get the nod. The country is peaceful, prosperous and without the political turmoil roiling Istanbul and financial problems plaguing Madrid.

While costly, the Olympics have always been a way for countries to show off and generate tourism. The 2000 Games in Sydney and 2008 Games in Beijing are credited for a spike in visits.

If Tokyo wins, it would be its second time hosting the game – but the third time it has won the vote. The 1964 Summer Games were held in Tokyo. But the first Games scheduled for Japan were the Summer and Winter Games of 1940. These Games are on a short list of canceled Olympics. The “lost Games” are always caused by war and usually were to be hosted by a country on the losing end of the conflict.

Berlin beat out Cleveland to host the 1916 Games, but by then World War I was in its second full year and the Games were canceled. The youth of Europe were killing each other that summer in Verdun and the Somme instead of competing on the track and field of Berlin.

Germany lost World War II, but won the 1931 vote to host the 1936 Olympics. Between the vote and the Games, Adolf Hitler rose to power and despite misgivings, the world came to the Nazi capital to take part in a Games soaked in fascist imagery, though American Jesse Owens and others often bested the supposed German super race in competition.

The Games were a boon to the German economy, with organized tours from the United States and elsewhere coming to Germany in the months before and during the Games. In an age before mass tourism and jet travel, an estimated 150,000 foreign tourists visited Berlin the summer of the Games. Among those who arrived in the wake of the Games was a tour group with World Travel of Santa Ana, which visited in 1938.

Japan won the right to host the Summer and Winter Games for 1940. But after Berlin, countries had second thoughts about taking part in another show for a totalitarian state. A word that would roil the Olympics 40 years later – boycott – circulated among competing countries. Japan withdrew as host and the Games were awarded to Helsinki. But World War II interceded and again the Games were canceled.

The final set of lost Games were in 1944. The vote took place in June 1939 as war already seemed imminent. London beat out Rome and Detroit on the first ballot. Fascist Italy, an ally of Hitler led by dictator Benito Mussolini, received a consolation prize of hosting the 1940 Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Within three months, German bombs were falling on London. For the second time in four years, the Games were canceled.

The Olympics returned three years after the end of World War II, with the 1948 Summer Games in London. Eventually the losers of World War II were granted Games, often as a signal of their successful return to the world of peaceful nations. Rome held the Summer Games in 1960, followed by Tokyo four years later. West Germany hosted the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Italy and Japan have also hosted the Winter Games.

But war did not go away. It just went from hot to cold. In the battle between the United State and Soviet Union during the Cold War, the battle was often for international prestige. Moscow was proud of winning the 1980 Games and went on a building boom, particularly for hotels to host the expected streams of tourists. But the United States boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in a move that did not receive unanimous support from the American public or athletes.

Four years later, Moscow sought its revenge by boycotting the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Predictably, each boycott led to an avalanche of gold medals for the country that was a target of the boycott.

Unlike the lost Games of 1916, 1940 and 1944, the Cold War never escalated into direct shooting between the U.S. and Soviets. The Games were never canceled and the records and medals of 1980 and 1984 stayed on the record books.

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